keeping tradition, gluten free

I put the call out on Instagram a few days back, as I realized it was time to make cookies but we didn't have a gluten-free recipe we knew and loved yet. That's kind of the way it's been going with the switch to gluten free around here - we've just adapted without a lot of fuss. I hardly notice the absence of it in our cooking or daily meals, until one or another tradition or 'favorite' things comes up and I am reminded. Such as this week, when I thought.... Right! Sugar cookies!

I have not found subbing gluten-free flour for regular flour to be an across the board good solution. The results often feel lacking, and so we end up just doing without this, that or the other bread thing and are fine without. Rather, I've found success in recipes that were made to be gluten-free naturally - not adjusted to be so. Does that make sense? On that note, here are a few that we have tried this week or are going to try, thanks to the suggestions sent our way. Not only are the individual recipes wonderful, but each of these blogs are a treasure trove of goodness!

Fluffy Vegan Gluten Free Sugar Cookies by Minimalist Baker - (We are able to do dairy, so ours weren't vegan.) This recipe is hands down our favorite now! It is the first cookie since my celiac discovery that tasted like, well....a really good cookie. I didn't know I was missing cookies until these showed up in my kitchen earlier this week, courtesy of Adelaide, our resident baker.

Paleo Snickerdoodle Cookies by The Urban Poser - Snickerdoodles are such a family favorite, maybe especially because of the one time when Ezra was an early reader and made them all by himself. But he read the fraction of 1.5 as 11 cups. And therefore made them with eleven cups of sugar. Bad parenting oversight, but a great family story. (And no one has any idea still how it is that I had eleven cups of sugar in the house.) Anyway....these cookies were not only delicious but give us one more opportunity to tell that story.

Gluten Free Chocolate Crinkle Cookies by Gluten Free on a Shoestring - Adelaide loves making Crinkle Cookies, and so she was happy to find this one, which with the addition of just a bit of xantham gum, work just like her gluten version.

Gluten Free Scottish Shortbread Cookies by the Nourishing Gourmet - Um, I really really love shortbread. I can't tell you how happy I am to have discovered this and fallen in love with the taste of them. So very good.

Rosemary Cookies by The Year in Food - We have not tried these yet, but looking at the ingredient list and those photographs, they're on the schedule for tomorrow. They have to be!

Thankfully, there are a loads of rehearsals, practices and parties happening this week, and so all of these cookies are making their way OUT the door just as quickly as they make it out of the oven. Which not only prevents us from eating them all, but also clears room and provides justification for trying more. Right?

(And as an aside, I want to thank you for your suggestions both in that Instagram post and here on the blog when I've mentioned celiac. I feel incredibly grateful and blessed to have discovered it in a time when we have such great tools of communication and sharing at our disposal, and to have such a thoughtful community who does just that - shares! It has, without a doubt, made our transition a fairly easy one, and I thank you for that!)

Comments

keeping tradition, gluten free

I put the call out on Instagram a few days back, as I realized it was time to make cookies but we didn't have a gluten-free recipe we knew and loved yet. That's kind of the way it's been going with the switch to gluten free around here - we've just adapted without a lot of fuss. I hardly notice the absence of it in our cooking or daily meals, until one or another tradition or 'favorite' things comes up and I am reminded. Such as this week, when I thought.... Right! Sugar cookies!

I have not found subbing gluten-free flour for regular flour to be an across the board good solution. The results often feel lacking, and so we end up just doing without this, that or the other bread thing and are fine without. Rather, I've found success in recipes that were made to be gluten-free naturally - not adjusted to be so. Does that make sense? On that note, here are a few that we have tried this week or are going to try, thanks to the suggestions sent our way. Not only are the individual recipes wonderful, but each of these blogs are a treasure trove of goodness!

Fluffy Vegan Gluten Free Sugar Cookies by Minimalist Baker - (We are able to do dairy, so ours weren't vegan.) This recipe is hands down our favorite now! It is the first cookie since my celiac discovery that tasted like, well....a really good cookie. I didn't know I was missing cookies until these showed up in my kitchen earlier this week, courtesy of Adelaide, our resident baker.

Paleo Snickerdoodle Cookies by The Urban Poser - Snickerdoodles are such a family favorite, maybe especially because of the one time when Ezra was an early reader and made them all by himself. But he read the fraction of 1.5 as 11 cups. And therefore made them with eleven cups of sugar. Bad parenting oversight, but a great family story. (And no one has any idea still how it is that I had eleven cups of sugar in the house.) Anyway....these cookies were not only delicious but give us one more opportunity to tell that story.

Gluten Free Chocolate Crinkle Cookies by Gluten Free on a Shoestring - Adelaide loves making Crinkle Cookies, and so she was happy to find this one, which with the addition of just a bit of xantham gum, work just like her gluten version.

Gluten Free Scottish Shortbread Cookies by the Nourishing Gourmet - Um, I really really love shortbread. I can't tell you how happy I am to have discovered this and fallen in love with the taste of them. So very good.

Rosemary Cookies by The Year in Food - We have not tried these yet, but looking at the ingredient list and those photographs, they're on the schedule for tomorrow. They have to be!

Thankfully, there are a loads of rehearsals, practices and parties happening this week, and so all of these cookies are making their way OUT the door just as quickly as they make it out of the oven. Which not only prevents us from eating them all, but also clears room and provides justification for trying more. Right?

(And as an aside, I want to thank you for your suggestions both in that Instagram post and here on the blog when I've mentioned celiac. I feel incredibly grateful and blessed to have discovered it in a time when we have such great tools of communication and sharing at our disposal, and to have such a thoughtful community who does just that - shares! It has, without a doubt, made our transition a fairly easy one, and I thank you for that!)

. . . . . . . .

Greetings! I'm Amanda Blake Soule - mother of five, author of three books on family creativity, and editor-in-chief of Taproot Magazine. I live with my family in an old farmhouse in Western Maine where we raise animals, grow vegetables and make lots of things. I write about it all here on the blog. Thank you for visiting!